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Muslim-Americans in Mainstream America
As the brick church with its steeple came into sight and I entered a church for the first time in my life, the warmth of the congregation genuinely touched me. My speech started with basics and ended with basics. The audience had many questions. I was the first Muslim to ever address them. To my surprise and pleasure, I found the audience was receptive. Surely we have to share the information we have, I thought! The questions these people had in their minds had been hanging for decades, and we had to answer them. Many Muslims from my community began to be frequent guest speakers in schools and churches. Yet it soon became apparent that, while individual Muslim volunteers were generous with their time, there was no Muslim institution that we could turn to for resources or support. Other communities had spokespeople to present their views in the public forum, while not a single national voice could be heard giving a Muslim perspective, and not one major Muslim organization existed to monitor the insults and distortions about Islam that appeared in U.S. newspapers, magazines and television coverage. Big conventions have been held annually for Muslim students and families in the Midwest since the 1960s, but their focus was on internal-spiritual development, community affairs, and the problems of Muslims abroad; they did not devote a lot of time to bridge-building in America. Some of us suggested holding workshops at the conventions on how to work with the media. "Muslims and the Media" seminars became standard fare at large gatherings. Concerned Muslims in various cities tried to pierce the oppressive atmosphere which smothered them. One of the first coordinated efforts was a "Muslim Media Watch," which issued a newsletter and responded to unfair reporting and television villainization of Arabs, and by extension, Muslims. Islamic communities attempted to protest their stereotyping but their input was largely ignored. The sense of injustice felt by Muslims at this portrayal of their beloved faith, their source of strength and serenity, mutated into a sense of hopelessness and despair. Many Muslims distrusted the media and assumed that it was ideologically dedicated to defaming Islam and Muslims. The Gulf War, though tragic for the Middle East, proved catalytic for the Muslim community in America. The public sought out local Muslims and Middle Eastern people to provide insight into the events behind the headlines. Muslim Americans were forced out of their lethargy when they became targets of anti-Arab sentiment. Threatening, vulgar calls appeared on the answering machines of mosques and Islamic centers. Our Muslim Students’ Organization received many. Stones were thrown through the windows of immigrants' shops. Reporters, covering stories of harassment and intimidation of local Muslims and Arabs, realized that residents with Middle Eastern ties were being singled out unjustly. Muslims with the surname Hussein became special targets. One mother, her sons taunted at school, her tires slashed and her home vandalized, was spurred into becoming a leading community activist. Muslims felt very much marginalized. It was obvious that problems facing the Muslim community were national in scope. They affected not only the Islamic community but also the entire country. Volunteer efforts, no matter how valiant, would not be enough. Local efforts, no matter how sincere, could not encompass a national problem. CAIR OPENS My experiences as a newcomer to this country had convinced me that Americans are a fair, open-minded people, but largely uninformed about Islam and Muslims. I also saw that they were being deliberately misled about Middle Eastern affairs. I felt that Muslims needed to take their message about who they were and what they believed directly to the public. After the Gulf War was over, I was offered a job with the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) as their public relations director. Since many Americans had been exposed to only one side of the story, my responsibility was to explain the Palestinian experience to the public and the media. In this effort I worked closely with IAP president Omar Ahmad. Omar, however, had the insight to realize that the central issue facing the Muslim community in the United States was not being addressed. The core challenge, that of stereotyping and defamation, was having a devastating effect on our children and paralyzing adults from taking their due roles in civic affairs. Omar suggested to me that we leave the IAP and concentrate on combating anti-Muslim discrimination nationwide. He proposed that I move to Washington, D.C., where any effective national effort would have to be based, while he tried to raise the seed money for the project. I contacted my friend Ibrahim Hooper, a professional journalist and communications genius, and tried to persuade him to move to Washington and join the project. Omar's vision and concern for Muslims in America coincided with Ibrahim's and my desire to take up the task. Ibrahim and I had worked together for years to help our local community reach out to its neighbors and we understood that individual initiatives were essential, but that they would never be as effective as a coordinated national effort.
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